It struck like lightning early last year; large and medium-sized landscape contracting companies began to merge into consolidated "national" companies - largely the work of investment bankers anxious to make a public stock offering and cash in on the vitality of this industry. Undoubtedly a move of this size affects the industry. It is a time for the small and mediumsized independent contractors to do some soul searching as to how they will fit in to the future of the industry.

When our readers noticed the story from France in the last issue and read stories from Australia and New Zealand in this issue, they might think this is a "flair for the dramatic" by talking about international customers - send a handful of machines overseas and make a big deal out of it. Actually, these stories represent a true picture of the worldwide opportunity we've found with the Walker Mower. For over 10 years our export sales have averaged 20% to 25% of the total business. In '97, the Australasian market alone took 7.9% of our production.

You may have noticed the tagline on recent advertising for Walker: "Independent, Family Owned Company, Designing and Producing Commercial Riding Mowers since 1980." It's obvious we think of our family-owned and -operated business as a strength and distinctive advantage. Some might suggest we are advertising a "weakness" in contrast to the strength and stability of big corporate business. However, as the "pendulum swings" with mergers, consolidation and downsizing in big corporate America, it is becoming apparent that "big corporate" is not necessarily synonymous with strength and stability. This is particularly true when a big company has lost "family focus" and begins to treat people like a commodity.

There are differences- manufacturers produce a product (a machine in our case) and landscape maintenance contractors primarily deliver service, yet many aspects of business development, operation and management are the same. The similarity is particularly striking when it comes to the kind of customers that are the foundation of the business and are highly sought after as the most necessary ingredient to starting and sustaining a business. Here's the kind of customers we both want:

Shortly after Walker Talk Volume 8 was printed, we found 15 printing defects: typos, misspellings, printing errors. What was really upsetting and embarrassing to me was that I had personally proofread the entire magazine before printing. After contacting the Walker Talk publisher, we quickly put a quality control plan in place for future issues.

It is amazing to hear stories of how businesses are started and how people find their best opportunity. There is often a struggle and a series of false starts and dead ends. Such is the history of Walker Manufacturing. I watched my father, Max Walker, work hard all of his life on several different projects. Often, there was not much to show for the effort except a lot of hard work. Finally, in developing and manufacturing the Walker Mower, it seems the company has found its "best opportunity."